Alec's adventures in IdrisLand
by Iridescent Reflection
Summary: Alec Lightwood has become used to the average life of the average human. He prefers routines over change. Things go downhill, and Alec is sent to a world that challenges everything he has become accustomed to. -Alice/Looking Glass based. More info inside.
1. Down the Demon's Den

_A/N: I know I should be finishing up Rendered Useless, but I've had this planned for a very long time, ever since I accidentally said "Alec in Wonderland' when I was supposed to be saying Alice in Wonderland. It's actually planned, for once! For the readers who know me, I've never done that before XD I have a beta now, too. Less errors, mates!_

_Do NOT own the characters or places. They belong to Cassandra Clare. And the Alice in Wonderland theme, which by the way, is a combination of the old and new version, does not belong to me!_

**(Line-Line-Line)**

Things started off very normally for Alexander Lightwood in basically everything. The day, for instance, began normally, as every day does. And the year started off normally too. Life was normal, and normal was good, because it meant nothing was unusual or out of place.

Then things went downhill, like a slippery slope. It started off slow, then someone just had to be that giant asshole who made the ramp go steeper because they thought it might be just a little bit funny to watch as things escalated to the point of no return. Or just the point of which is too steep to climb.

His parents' marriage had started off normal. A young, happy couple, very much in love, but very busy with their work schedules.

Alec's parents were what you might call 'workaholics,' or people who were originally married to their career and thought cheating on that commitment with a real human being would be any good for their stress levels.

Maryse Lightwood, aged 23 at the time, had been a dedicated journalist for a paper, always running around and doing interviews, trying to get that next promotion. She had met Robert Lightwood through an interview while scoping out a news hotspot.

Robert Lightwood, aged 27 at the time, had been a hard-working officer of the law. A policeman who worked over time for fun.

The two had met when Robert had saved a few hostages at a bank hold-up. Maryse had been sent down to the scene of the crime to get the report of the brave policeman who had very valiantly risked his life to save the tellers, and the customers in the National Bank of Alicante.

An interview was conducted, and a date was set for the future.

One date turned into two, then four, and eight, and then drinking heavily one night and ending up with a mistake of a pregnancy for Maryse Lightwood.

Feeling responsible, Robert Lightwood asked for her hand in marriage four months after that fateful interview, and she agreed.

A normal beginning to parenthood and committed life, as far as 'normal' stands. Alec was born later on. Very healthy, very normal. He was destined to grow up with a normal childhood, as they would predict.

Alec's parents would go off to work every morning, and come back very late at night. He was usually left with a babysitter for those hours of the day. Or sometimes the neighbors, when they weren't working. Once he even went to his grandmother's house. They even found him a cat to keep him company. Church, was his name, and he was a sleek black, kind kitty.

Everything was like clockwork, save for who watched over him. But then Robert Lightwood started coming home later. Sometimes he wouldn't be home until early the next day.

They thought nothing of it, him and his mother. His mother just assumed he was putting in later hours, and Alec, barely seeing his parents during the day, and too tired to stay up late at night to see them, didn't notice much.

This went on until Isabelle was born.

She was too young to remember anything if you asked her, but Alec could remember. Alec could remember the times his father's clothes smelled like some different perfume when they were left on the floor in the laundry room. And Alec remembered when he was old enough to stay home by himself (with the neighbor woman across the street checking up on him every other hour), that his father sometimes snuck a lady into the house and into the bedroom. They wouldn't come out until much, much later, after much screaming resounded through the house.

Maryse came home early during one of these events at one point, her work finished early for once. Robert Lightwood was caught in the act, and he apologized. He even promised it would never happen again. Maryse allowed this to pass only once.

For a while then, their lives returned to normal. Back to the clockwork schedule they had. Alec started school and didn't have to stay home alone. Isabelle had a babysitter now, or the neighbor lady.

The elder male Lightwood kept his promise for quite a few years. But nearly a decade and a half later, that promise was forgotten.

Both busy with their work still, the incident was forgotten, and Robert Lightwood strayed yet again. He didn't bring the woman by the house now that Alec and Isabelle were both old enough to understand what cheating was. He just stayed at her house with the excuse of "sleeping over with one of the co-workers" due to "over time," or some such nonsense that they all believed.

So with normal once again becoming abnormal in their lives, the folks were getting into more and more fights, and working ever more later. Robert was caught in another affair not long after he had started the new one. Maryse and he were at each others throats every time they were in the same room, so one of them had to budge.

The wrong doer, aka Robert, temporarily moved out of the house and into a motel down the street, courtesy of Maryse, who had demanded him out if he was sleeping with another one of his co-workers. Her, unable to handle the stress of her job, her failing marriage, and her kids, decided to send her kids away in the summer, to their other (summer) house that they never used anymore out by Lake Sirdi, to cool off and settle things. Her reasoning for them leaving the house was that these were things kids should not be seeing, or hearing, and they were definitely old enough to handle themselves. She would send a check once a week for their food supply.

Alec and Isabelle had been here for a grand total of two weeks, and they were perfectly content with the silence of their summer home surrounded by deep woods they used to explore in their young age. They even got to bring Church with them, who was really getting up in his age now. None of them were sure how old he was, but he as energetic as a young kitten, for some odd reason.

This was were Alec sat now. Adapting to the new type of normal. Sitting outside on nice, warm days by the lake's edge, petting the cat, watching the surface of Lake Sirdi ripple.

Their home was almost entirely surrounded by the area of trees, save for the plot of woodland their parents had hired to be cleared out. The house sat in a clearing with a clear view of the large lake beside it. Half the view of the lake sat in the clearing, while the other half rested within the trees' cover. It was almost like living on a secluded island in Alec's opinion.

It was where Alec felt the most normal. He enjoyed the tranquility he got out of watching the deep blue lake shimmer and reflect the sun and the drifting clouds in the sky. If he had to say it, this would probably be the most normal his life had ever been. Fending for themselves was normal, cooking was Alec's jurisdiction when he and Isabelle were alone, so that was normal too. Getting their own groceries was normal, and relying on each other for company was so normal, it was painful.

Church purred happily in his arms, Alec stroked the soft head of his long time friend. He watched the cat's tail lazily dance, almost like it had a mind of its own.

Yes, Alec was comfortable, and content. He was wearing tattered, worn out jeans, with his tattered, holey sweater that had become a faded black color. Kind of brownish, if he had to place a guess. The sun was nice on his pale skin, and the wind was fair, tousling his dark, unevenly cut hair, just enough to play with a few strands, but not enough to muss it around.

He was happy, despite the situation going on at home, and despite the fact that he had grown up with parents who never spared a second to raise him the way normal parents did. He grew up to enjoy the solitude, go through life the way he was used to without his parents caring enough to change anything about him. No change was a good thing for him. He was a routine person, he might say.

Isabelle, his dear, sweet younger sister, couldn't stand that. So no, it wasn't his parents who tried to change his lifestyle. It was his fashionista of a sister. Isabelle was all about changing things up, breaking routine and such.

She was everything he wasn't. Personality wise, and appearance wise.

Where he was lacking in dress sense, she flourished everything she had, she decked herself out every day. She told him that every day was a chance to dress and impress. Alec was, however, not impressed with her attempts to dress him up and make him look like a half decent kid.

Isabelle had long, beautiful hair, with her father's eyes. Alec had his mother's bottle-blue eyes, which was probably the only thing that popped out in his appearance.

Where Isabelle thrived off attention from her many admirers, Alec liked to remain alone. He liked to be that quiet kid who sits in the back and only speaks when spoken to. Isabelle couldn't stand that about him, but accepted it when it appeared he was too socially awkward to start conversations on his own.

Alec always felt so out of place in the world. Like he didn't belong there with all of those loud, bright people. Isabelle looked like she belonged with the crowd, but Alec liked to sit in the back and think. Which was another thing Isabelle didn't like. She said he thought too often, thought too much to have fun. It made him a kill joy, she told him.

He didn't mind. He didn't want to associate with those people anyway. They all liked things he didn't care about. He just wasn't one of those average teenagers who used cell phones to live, and used internet for things other than homework. Maybe he wasn't so normal after all?

But here, by the lake, and surrounded by the trees, he felt like he was home. Maybe it was just because it was pure solitude, or maybe it was just because he liked the area. He never knew why, but he didn't question it. He just relaxed and enjoyed himself, like normal people would do in a nice house like theirs.

Yeah, for a summer home, it was pretty freaking nice, especially for a house built in what was basically the middle of a forest. Their parents were kind of rich from all the work and success they had going.

So far, every day had been the same as the last, for the past two weeks here. The siblings would wake up around eight or nine in the morning, clean the house a little after Alec prepared a simple breakfast, and then the two would spend the rest of the day doing something leisurely. Usually something they did separate, but they had gotten together a few times so far.

Today had started normal, just like he said before. But it progressively started to slide downhill. Alec could tell things were going downhill when Isabelle snuck up behind him and wrapped her arms around him, shouting into his ear a very enthusiastic "Happy Birthday!"

Needless to say, Alec was very startled out of his happy, quiet time. So startled, that he very nearly flipped the cat into the lake. After a very manly shriek and a few colorful words, Alec regained himself, recomposed himself, that is to say.

"Izzy!" he shouted, his heart pounding loudly into his ears. "You could have given me cardiac arrest or something!" He placed a hand over his heart, feeling it beat quickly and fiercely against his chest. He took a deep breath before starting again.

"What do you want?" he said a little more calmer. She had let him go and was smiling at him deviously. She was up to something, if he ever knew what that looked like.

"Nothing, nothing," she 'assured' him, still grinning. "It's only JUST your 18th birthday today, that's all."

It took a moment for that statement to register to him. He blinked once, twice, thrice before giving a very eloquent "Ah."

"Yes, 'ah'," Isabelle agreed. "You are now legally an adult, can legally live on your own. You can legally do a whole bunch of things now, except drink. But that never stopped me, so never mind that last part."

Alec said nothing to her end statement, just rolled his eyes. Isabelle was more experienced in things, despite being younger. Alec would bet she had had more than one alcoholic drink before. At those parties she went to, Heavens above knows what she's already experienced.

"So, did you disturb the peace just to tell me that?" Alec asked, unimpressed with the fact that today was the day of his birth.

Isabelle looked severely annoyed by his lack of enthusiasm.

"No, actually, I made some plans. Maybe I'll just leave if you don't care," she said petulantly, sticking her nose in the air.

"Okay." Alec would like that. Very much so.

Her face twisted into that devilish grin again, all pretenses of annoyance dropped.

"Sorry, big bro, but it isn't that easy to get rid of me." Oh, didn't he already know this. "You act like some old man, just forgetting his birthday and everything, and not even caring."

The older sibling just shrugged uncaringly. "Just another year gone by to me," he admitted. "Never did excite me the way it does you."

"Clearly."

His lack of enthusiasm probably contributed to the fact that his birthday had been more or less ignored as a child. Once Robert had been caught cheating, they decided their youngest deserved a little more attention, so her birthdays were often celebrated. At first, that irked Alec, and then he realized there was no point in getting upset, or in the small, silly parties his parents threw for Isabelle.

"So, neither of us really expected to be here a few months ago," she began slowly. "Neither of us thought Mom would send us here, but that just makes things easier!"

"What was that last part?" Alec asked, suddenly confused at the sudden change in tone of the sentence.

"It makes it easier for today," she said, as if that would clarify everything.

"What? My birthday is easier being here?"

"Sure. It's quieter for one, no parents yelling right now. And you can express yourself out here with neither of them to judge you. Hint hint," she trailed off.

"What?" Alec wasn't catching on at all. He never was very good at these things. Maybe it was due to his lack of regular social communication, and the fact that he acted like he was never up to date with society's average teenage issues. Not that he ever cared enough to learn those things.

"I have to spell it out for you?" Isabelle asked like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. She shook her head and sighed heavily.

"Spell what out?"

"You know. What you are." She watched him fidget a little, she knew he knew she had picked up on something over the years.

"And um, what exactly am I?" he tried, sounding nervous and dodgy.

"You're gay," Isabelle said flatly, making Alec flinch. He had never vocalized this statement, but she had noticed things over the years that their parents had never taken time to notice. They had never even noticed that he had yet to obtain his first kiss!

"No way. You don't know anything!" the guilty male objected, shaking his head furiously in denial.

"But I do, Alec," Isabelle tried gently, trying to calm her dearly loved brother down. "I know it all. Or most of it. And I still love you."

The last part seemed to catch Alec's attention and stop the head shaking. He looked up at her with wide eyes, his panic seemed to be dying down.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I won't judge you about anything. I couldn't do that because we're family. And it would make me a sort of hypocrite considering the things I've gone and tried," she answered honestly, shrugging her shoulders. "The important thing is, I'm not judging you, and that's why being here makes my plan all the better."

Alec decided to bite, though he wasn't sure why he didn't just say no and walk away. He figured it was because his sister had just told him she didn't care what he was, so he decided to play along with whatever was going on.

"Why?"

"Because, I got you this really nice present, something to express yourself in, and the privacy here, well, only I would know!" She was getting excited and started to walk back to the house. Alec didn't want to get up, but he was a little curious by now. He picked himself up, then stooped down to get the cat and carrier him in the house. Alec followed behind her slowly, cautiously.

The walk was mostly performed in silence, with Alec pondering why Isabelle knew, and for Isabelle, she was giddy with excitement for her plan. She was excited, and she had her camera. That was the most important thing. Now she just had to get him to agree to it.

When the Lightwood siblings arrived at the house, Isabelle opened the back door and stepped through, holding it open for her brother to step through next.

He almost expected to see the back room, or porch, as their dad called it, decked out in birthday-related decorations. He sighed in relief when there was none. He let the cat down on a near by chair to sit and wait. Sometimes he didn't even have to vocalize what he wanted the cat to do, sometimes the cat just did it. He wanted the cat to sit and wait for him to come back and get this over with. The cat sat down and watched the two human children talk.

"So, what are we doing?" Alec asked hesitantly, knowing that the answer was sometimes -most of the time- never any good for him.

Isabelle turned around with a twirl, her hair flying out and whipping him in the face. She gave him a sheepish smile when he looked irked from getting smacked by her hair.

"We," she started dramatically, "are going to dress you up like the 'girl' we know you will be in the relationship."

Alec spluttered indignantly, at a loss for words, he even choked on his own saliva. He didn't know whether to be embarrassed or angry or what.

"R-relationship? Girl? What?" he managed to spit out when he got his voice back. Isabelle should be one of those kids on that one show, where people laugh at what kids say because it's ridiculous and cute.

His sister smiled sweetly, like she hadn't even suggested such a perverted term.

"We both know you won't be topping anyone any time soon, Alec," she stated a little impatiently like it was supposed to be all too obvious. "And that's why the privacy here is a blessing in disguise. Mom and Dad won't ever had to know this all happened. Just little ol' me."

Really he had no idea what to say to her. He was just slightly disturbed by the fact that she thought about these things more than he did. Or at all, for that matter.

"What am I doing that requires so much privacy?" he asked, feeling like he would never get an answer with her dodging around the question each time.

"As I said, dress up. I'm going to make you look to pretty!"

Okay, so Alec may be gay. Completely and entirely gay with absolutely no interest in females, but that did not, and he would repeat, did NOT, make him want to look 'pretty' or some such nonsense. He was not a flamboyant sort of male, and in case you forgot, he was still a man, with manly pride that must be upheld by all men.

"Um, do I look like I want to be pretty?" he questioned his sister, questioning her sanity behind that original inquiring. "Do you not see these clothes I'm wearing right now?"

Isabelle wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"Of course I can see them. I can see they're incredibly ugly and ripped, and that you're hiding the body you got from running track under loose, baggy, and terribly ugly clothing."

"What makes you think I would agree to this?"

The diva just rolled her eyes at his stubbornness, like she didn't understand why he was being so difficult.

"Just wait until you see what I bought you first," she said. "And yes, I bought them. Not with our parents' money, but with my own, so you have to appreciate it and you have to wear it at least once."

Oh no, she wasn't. Guilt tripping was not going to work on him this time. He may fall for it fifty percent of the time, but not today he wasn't!

His sister had left while he had been fuming in his mind. He wondered where she had gone and considered sneaking off. But where would he hide, anyway? And besides, he had to come back here for food some time. He may as well just get it over with.

So he patiently, but nervously, waited for his sister's return. He mumbled a few words to his feline friend, who gave no response except a lazy mewl. It didn't take her too long to reappear, and when she did, she was carting a large, brightly wrapped box with an equally large and bright smile.

That smile made him nervous, he wasn't going to lie. Whenever he saw that smile, he shivered a little bit on the inside.

She brought the multicolored box to him, stopping in front of him and holding it out for him to take.

Alec eyed it warily, like it might contain a handful of snakes, or mushrooms or something. Whatever was in this box was going to make him look 'pretty,' and the way he saw it, that was enough to make any man nervous.

"All right," she said once he had taken the box from her and had started carefully undoing the tape. "So, I just want to tell you that I spent a lot of hard earned money to get you these things, and I want you to appreciate them like it was the last thing you were getting on earth. I also want you to wear it a minimum amount of once."

Alec peeked at her from under his long bangs from where he had his head bowed, focusing on getting the wrapper off in one, neat piece. This always pissed his sister off. Taking too long and not just tearing it off like she did.

And then came the moment of truth. The truth so big, that revealing it would be devastatingly tragic to one's future.

As the young man pulled away the wrapper successfully removed in one piece, he was faced with this box of figurative truth. Ever so carefully did he remove the top half of the box, holding his breath to see what laid inside.

What he was presented with was no disappointment on the shock factor. He was so shocked, that he had been shocked into silence and staring in disbelief. Actually, he wasn't entirely positive with what he was seeing. It was all folded up in the box, so he couldn't be completely certain until he picked up these dangerous garments and held them up to full view.

"Well? Take them out of the box and look at them!" Isabelle insisted, getting fidgety with impatience. Alec just huffed at her and told her to "hold her horses." To which she commented that nobody said that these days. Which he ignored, caring less.

There appeared to be a couple of items in it. From what he could tell, the first layer was a pair of long, stripped socks. Beneath that, he wasn't completely sure, but it had a string of ribbon around it, so it couldn't be any good.

"Socks? I have socks, Iz," he commented, picking them up and waving them around. "And as far as I know, guys don't wear socks that go up to the knee."

"Your socks have holes in them. They're really gross, and I threw a ton out yesterday, by the way."

Alec wasn't too sure what to say to his baby sister who had taken such consideration into this day that she had to throw out things ahead of time. He didn't need to ask when she had found the time to do that, since he had spent most of the day outside in his usual place.

"Keep looking," she demanded. "There's the thing that I worked so hard for that you have yet to get to." She was really going to continue enforcing the fact that she had spent countless hours 'working' for that money. She wouldn't tell him how he got that money, of course, because he'd just get mad, but as long as he knew she worked hard, that was all he needed to know.

So Alec kept looking, perhaps falling for the guilt tripping. After removing the long socks from the box, he moved on to the next item. The fabric was a light shade of gentle blue, it was soft, possibly made of cotton. He picked the mysterious article of clothing up, letting it unfold before his eyes.

"I'm still a guy, Izzy. You can't expect me to wear this," he said, looking over at her gleeful expression with wide eyes.

"A guy who shaves all the hair on his body. Yeah, I know that too. It'll look perfect on you!"

And so Alec returned to staring at the now identified article of clothing. Mostly in disbelief, mind you. He was also a little frightened, but he would never admit that aloud.

It was a dress.

A blue dress, to give it an adjective and make it more specific than 'that dress,'

It even had a ribbon for around the waist, to give _females_ that shapely hourglass figure.

"You expect me to wear this?" Alec asked, raising a dark eyebrow. No way was he wearing this. No way was she going to convince him to wear that.

"No, I don't expect you, I'm asking you."

"In that case, n-"

"But I would like to remind you," she interrupted, "that I spent a lot of money for that dress, and I had to get into a cat fight with some other girl who was trying to take it. It was the last one, you know."

Damn the guilt tripping! Alec was falling hard for the guilt trip, especially when Isabelle batted her eyelashes and looking humble.

"What if I say no?" he tested, narrowing his eyes. He watched as Isabelle's eyes narrowed as well.

"Then I dye your hair pink while you sleep. I promise you it won't come out easily. In fact, it'll be pink by the time we get to go back home with Mom and Dad."

"How long do I have to wear it?" he asked resignedly, sighing as he wondered what he was signing himself up for.

"The entire day," she replied smugly, making him sigh once more.

How bad could it be, really? Just one day, with no one but Isabelle seeing him. He could live with that.

"Will you help me put it on?" he asked, dreading the next upcoming hours.

Isabelle looked flattered, like he had just told her that she was the only person in the world who could really bring out the best in him. And by the best in him, she meant fashion and looks.

"I thought you'd never ask!" she exclaimed, jumping up a little in her excitement. She snatched the dress from him and grabbed the socks he had put aside. She ran behind him and shoved him in the direction of the bathroom.

"Go, go, go! No time to waste!" she rushed, nudging him repeatedly until he was walking towards the bathroom on his own. "Keep the door open and I'll hand you the dress when you're ready. Just slip it over your head like a shirt and find the arm holes and the hole for your head. Piece of cake, right?"

It sounded simple enough, he supposed. When he was ushered into the bathroom, door slightly cracked to allow Isabelle to talk to him, he undressed, casting his hoodie aside, along with his jeans. He hadn't been wearing socks or shoes since he had just been going outside.

"Ready," he announced, his voice cracking a little on the end. He watched socks fly through the opening of the door. He knew how to put these on. It just felt really awkward when they slipped up past his knees and up to mid thigh. They nearly reached the edge of his boxer shorts, which, in his opinion, looked ridiculous.

"Okay," he said. "Socks are on." He looked down at his legs covered in black stripes. White socks and black stripes? He had never worn so many colors on his legs. He usually just wore the blue jeans. Or black, but those were all single colors, if you didn't count the patches that were different faded colors.

This time, he saw Isabelle stick her hand in the door, holding the dress carefully.

"Don't drop this," she instructed, letting him grab it before withdrawing her hand. "Just like putting a shirt on. Don't get lost in there."

Alec did get lost. Somehow.

First he didn't know if it would just be easier to put it on by stepping into it, but that didn't work because it got stuck half way up to his hips. Then when he slipped it over as he had been told, he couldn't find his way out. When he found the spots where he put his arms and head through, he found out he had put the dress on backwards.

If the dress wasn't so snug, he would have just withdrawn his arms and twisted it around, but it wouldn't allow him to do that. His sweaters and shirts let him do that. He didn't like this dress already.

Finally, he managed to get it on the right way. He felt kind of naked under the dress because there were no pant legs to cover his legs. The socks helped, but he still felt naked.

"Done," he groaned, looking at himself in the mirror.

He looked ridiculous, in his opinion. A tall, slightly muscled young man in a dress. He couldn't get over how stupid he looked. The shoulders were a little tight because his shoulders were more broad than a woman's. The front looked kind of loose towards the bottom due to the fact that he had no breasts to fill it out. The ribbon hung loose around his waist, so he would need his sister to tie it up.

Isabelle walked in, her face lighting up to match a 10,000 watt light bulb.

"You look so cute!" she squealed, clasping her hands together and hopping up and down a few times.

Alec felt his cheeks heat up and looked away. He felt her tug at a few spots on the dress and comment on how tight or loose it was.

"I'm so proud of myself. I've never tried converting male sizes to female sizes. I'm good at guessing, but daamnnn, I guess I could go pro now."

"Yeah, yeah, you did a good job. Can I wear my own shoes for this? Or did you pick out some high heels?"

Isabelle shook her head, moving behind him to tighten the ribbon. He gasped as she tugged it tightly, pulling it tight and tying it in a bow.

"Don't be so silly. I know you couldn't walk in heels for your life. With your luck, you'd break your ankle. You can use my converse shoes."

"But your size is too small for me. And I have my own. Why can't I use my own?"

The girl sighed like she was talking to a child who couldn't get the simplest of math equations through his head.

"Your shoes are just like your clothes. Tattered, and gross, and ripped. Besides, mine will be fine, maybe just a little tight."

Alec didn't want to, but he also didn't want pink hair.

"I'll wear them," he agreed, putting his head down. He hoped no one but Isabelle would see him like this.

"Oh, and one more thing!" Isabelle quickly added, waiting until he looked up. "I have these half-gloves for you to borrow. They might fit you since they stretch a little."

"Why do I have to wear half of a glove?" Alec asked, wishing the day were over already.

"Because they compliment your dress, that's why," his sister responded before leaving him alone and going to retrieve the items she had mentioned.

The young cross-dresser left the bathroom, feeling very much exposed as he left the small space to walk through the other parts of the house. His plan was to just go back outside and sit, but if he felt vulnerable and exposed now, how much worse would he feel outside? The entire area they were in was secluded, the Lightwood siblings were perhaps the only two people for a few miles around.

Isabelle returned to find him sulking by the back door, muttering to himself about not wanting pink hair, and hating how the dress was cutting off the air supply.

She cleared her throat to announce her presence, he looked up and flushed red again. She handed him the shoes and the half-gloves she had been talking about.

Alec really had been picturing half a glove when she had mentioned it, but now that he was looking at it, it was more like a sort of hand sleeve. All it did was cover his hand from his knuckles to about his wrist. It was fingerless and a bit tight around his knuckles, maybe because his hands were bigger than his sister's.

"See," Isabelle started once Alec had put on the small accessories from his sister. "I think you look darling like that. You're going to attract a ton of men from miles around, trust me!"

Alec rolled his eyes. "Can't have that, actually. Mom and Dad would start questioning my orientation if I showed up in a dress with a flock of other guys behind me." Not that the dress wasn't enough to give everything away.

"Guys will like how cute you look, anyways."

"Only if they have a cross dressing fetish, I suppose."

The younger girl just rolled her eyes and looked him over once more.

"There's something missing. I just know it," she said, mostly to herself. No way Alec would appreciate the things she had done to him to change him. He would just say that nothing was missing and everything was fine. Then he'd be off to be boring and independent out by the lake.

As she expected, Alec muttered to himself that nothing was missing. She figured out what was off when he brushed away his bangs out of his eyes.

"Ah, I got it!" she exclaimed, startling Alec. "Your hair!"

"What about my hair?" he asked suddenly, his hands going to cover the dark locks.

"I need to cut it for you!" She had a wild look in her eyes, the second most feared look in her arsenal.

"No, thanks. I cut it myself," Alec refused, backing away to get out of the house. "Once a month," he added.

"And that's where the problem is. You cutting it yourself. In the dark. With your left hand, it looks like." She wasn't that far off in guessing, he supposed. He cut with his right hand, but not quite in the dark. Just not with a mirror. He cut whatever was long.

"I'm going outside," Alec said, picking up the cat that had been so patiently waiting for him to return as he had instructed.

"I'll be right there with scissors," his sister forewarned him. She left and he left the room, and the first thing he noticed when he stepped outside was that it was awful breezy. Especially between his legs. He missed pants already.

Alec set the cat down beside him, the cat had never run off before, so they trusted the cat to be alone outside, or at least not being held on to the entire time.

The dress's ends were pushed slightly by the gentle winds that were passing through. One particularly stronger breeze had given more than just a light push to the dress, and he was suddenly cold. The socks just weren't enough to beat the cold.

Church gave a low groan, deep in his throat, alarming Alec and causing him to look at his cat.

The sleek cat was crouched and groaning loudly, staring intently into the woods behind the house. His tail was whipping back and forth in anticipation. Alec didn't have cat's eyes, but he at least understood something that Church wanted or didn't like was out there.

"Hey, Church? It's okay, kitty," Alec tried in his best soothing voice, taking a step closer to his pet.

As soon as he took that step, the cat bolted, straight for the woods. With little time to stare in shock of his cat actually running away from him, Alec ran after the feline.

He lost sight of the animal when it reached the edge of the trees. Alec skidded to a halt before entering. There was less sunlight streaming through farther in. Running was kind of difficult with shoes too small, and it pinched his feet.

No, he couldn't just give up on his faithful pet like that. He had to search! He started running again, charging straight through and trying to listen for the cat making any noise as it ran through.

He tried to follow the small noises he heard, but it was hard to pick them out since he made thrice that amount of noise.

"Here, kitty kitty! Here kitty!" he called desperately, scared to hell about where his cat could be. Church had never done this before. Church was too bored with little things in life to chase them, like mice, or spiders. Now, suddenly, something interesting enough got him to run off after it?

Alec watched his feet as he ran through the trees, trying to dodge the roots that stuck up, and trying to weave around the trees. He also had to keep looking around for any signs of his cat. Black fur would be hard to spot in the dark, wooded area.

He saw a flash of color streak by, and he was unsure what it was, but he followed it. It was the best lead he had right now. He didn't stop to question why there might be color streaks. Maybe it was just in his head.

"Kitty!" Alec called again. "Kitty!" He made the clicking sounds with his tongue that the cat liked so much. Out of the corner of his eye, he could swear he saw Church. He followed that lead, catching only glimpses as he rushed by the streaks of green and brown of the trees.

When he was nearly sure he had to be close to the middle of the woods, he was positive he saw the long tail of his cat disappear down a fox hole.

Alec was gasping for breath by now, and his feet were on fire. Had he not been a track person, he probably wouldn't have made it this far. He usually had better running shoes, but these at least got him through the trees. Running in a dress wasn't as hard as it looked like. It was almost as easy as running in a track suit.

His cat had disappeared down the animal's den and didn't appear to be coming out any time soon.

Maybe he was stuck? But that seemed unlikely. Maybe it was a mole hole and had tunnels?

The idea of his cat being lost underground scared him a lot. He jogged to the hole and crouched down, careful not to kneel on the fabric of his dress. He tried to peer into the hole, but could see nothing.

Hesitantly, despite his intuition that it was never a good idea to stick one's hand into the strange, unknown hole of a mysterious animal, he stuck a hand in. Slowly, he pushed his hand in farther, as far as he could until he was almost laying down against the hole.

His hand patted around, feeling, searching, and when something felt like it had grabbed onto his wrist, he gave a startled cry and jerked back.

Tried to jerk back, anyways. Something down there had grabbed a hold of him and was intent on not letting go. Alec was seriously regretting his choice right now.

He was beginning to go into full blown panic mode. His arm was caught in a hole, his cat was probably eaten by whatever had a hold on him, and he would be lucky to make it out of this situation with both arms.

His arm was jerked, making him fall onto the ground instead of the hovering he had been doing. Isabelle would kill him when she saw what he had done to the dress.

"Help! Somebody!" Alec shouted, gasping as pain flared up his shoulder when he was tugged harshly. If it wasn't dislocated soon, he didn't know what would happen.

Suddenly, Alec found himself falling headfirst into the hole. To him, it looked as if the hole had expanded to a size large enough to allow his body to dive right in.

A pair of red eyes locked onto his from the dark depths of the pit, and Alec felt himself falling into the largest hole he had ever seen.

**(End-End-End)**

_A/N: I hope it's all right. Drop a review. I have about 11 chapters planned out for this if all goes according to plan. _


	2. The Hunt

_A/N: My beta and I were terribly busy, and this was actually written a few weeks ago. I sent it in to her a week ago and just got it back, too. Sorry it took so long!_

_(XxX)_

It was as if a giant hole had opened up right where he had been moments ago. Or maybe it was the hole that his cat had disappeared through that had grown larger, rather than spontaneous appearance. It made slightly more sense, but all the same, the concept was mind boggling to Alec.

Alec shut his eyes instantly when he knew he was falling into a deep, dark hole, and when those brilliant red eyes had locked onto his, he panicked and wondered what in the hell he had just fallen into. As he thought about the blood red eyes that had burned twin orbs of light into his retinas, he could feel the heavy stare of them as he plunged down the abyss.

There was a death grip on his wrist, presumably from the owner of the red eyes. Alec thought his wrist might snap if it grabbed any tighter. He had no idea if he was being dragged down by the mysterious force, or if gravity was taking him for a joy ride. The wind whipped tendrils of cold air at any bare skin exposed, the sound of the wind rushing past him filled his ears, and he was vaguely aware of the sounds of the fabric of the dress being stirred up violently by the force of the air.

If he opened his eyes now, he was sure he would just be greeted with the pit of darkness and the red eyes. It was easier to face reality, if that's what this was, with his eyes closed.

Somehow, it was hard to accept the fact that he wasn't just about to wake up from a nightmare. He had already tried convincing himself that today was just a nightmare when Isabelle had suggested the dress.

And then, as soon as it had appeared, it had gone. The grip that had been squeezing the life out of his wrist disappeared. It could have easily just been his arm going numb and no longer feeling it, but the chilling feeling of eyes on him had vanished too. He was sure whatever had had a hold of him was gone.

Knowing it was gone, Alec opened his eyes a little, just enough to shield his vision from the gusting winds, and enough to peek at whatever might be ahead of him. What he saw was not what he expected.

He could have accepted the sight of more darkness around him, but instead, what he saw threw him into a panic.

A floor was rushing up to meet him, and that sent panic through his mind. He was about to land hard, and if he didn't land right, he could break something important, namely his spine.

Alec twisted his body to the best of his ability, trying to avoid landing on his face, or awkwardly on his side or back. As the floor got closer, he decided covering his neck was the best idea.

Using his arms to shield the top of his neck and the sides of his face, he squeezed his eyes shut and waited for impact.

Gravity was a bitch, he had decided, when he hit the hard floor on his left side, his top half landing first, then his lower half bending to meet the floor. His spine nearly bent in half, and he gasped in pain as he felt the important column of bones bend slightly. The rest of him hit the floor with a loud smack.

His eyes were watering and he was faced with breathlessness from the pain. His body was on fire, he could feel his spine tingling from the intense electricity zinging through it sharply.

Unconsciously, his body curled into the best ball form it could, stopping half way to a semicircle before aching too much to continue moving. It wasn't broken, he was nearly sure of that. He could feel everything stinging and buzzing from the rush and impact.

When he had recovered enough to breathe without wincing, he tested everything out, moving his fingers, his wrists -which he was happy they were both unbroken- his ankles and knees, and finally, his neck.

His neck was painful to move, so he could only move it left and right slightly and slowly. Alec lay there at the bottom of the pit, trying to regain his senses and wait for the pain to dull. He forced himself up only when he decided that the pain was not going to lessen anymore without rest, which he had no time for right now.

Picking himself up carefully, Alec took slow, deep breaths and stood shakily, almost bending back down when pain shot through his spine. He groaned in agitation and pain when he took a closer look around the bottom of this 'pit.'

He found himself in a dimly lit area, circular in perimeter. The circular shape of the premises made sense enough considering he had fallen down a circular hole. So this was the bottom of it?

Alec Lightwood had just experienced the most bizarre event in his life so far. Falling down a hole chasing his cat and landing in some kind of pit?

Falling in was how he got here. Now the question was how to get out.

For every way in there is a way out, right?

The logical concept of that term would be to exit the way you entered, but seeing as he had plummeted down a hole of uncountable depths, that was out of the question. Besides that, the condition of his body was not up for scaling the walls of some pit.

There was another way out though, but it wasn't starving and dying. It wasn't offing himself in any way, and it certainly wasn't praying to some deity that might or might not hear him. It was really as simple as opening a door.

Or five.

There were five doors in the circular room; each a different color and a different knob.

Alec trudged to the door nearest to him, a normal looking door with a normal handle. When he reached for it, his fingers hit some sort of invisible barrier. His fingers had been zapped in the process of blocking his path to the handle, and he glowered at it.

The next logical idea was to move on to the next door on his left.

It was a door of pure black color with a handle in a twisting spiral shape.

There was no force field or anything to impede his path as he curled his fingers around one of the loops of the knob, but it was cold to touch. Freezing, in fact. It hurt his fingers just to place them on the spiral. He quickly removed his hand and moved on.

A deep brown door with a cross shaped handle stood before him now. The way his fingers had to be placed to grasp it was awkward, but the knob felt normal enough. The only real problem with it was that it was locked.

Groaning in frustration, really just wanting to find a way out, Alec moved on to the fourth door, a white door with a large, rectangular handle.

The door appeared safe enough, ordinary enough, despite the oddly shaped knob. When he wrapped his hand around it though, it felt as though he had grabbed a box of needles.

He jerked back, gasping more in shock than in pain. When he looked at his hand for any puncture wounds though, he found none. No blood and no holes in his hand. He cursed at the door and moved on to the final door.

His last option and he was running out of hope.

The door was by far, the most extraordinary out of the five. It stood taller than the rest, almost to an intimidating height, and it was covered in odd symbols that struck a deep chord within Alec's memory.

He hadn't a clue what they meant, but he felt that they all meant something.

The handle was shaped as a hand outstretched, as if it were reaching for someone. Curious, Alec intertwined his fingers with the knobs to grasp the lifelike mechanism.

He was surprised when it was warm to touch. Not warm as in room temperature, but warm like a living person's hand. He was almost too distracted to check if it was locked.

This was it. The last possible way out. If this didn't work he was screwed well over into next week, or however long it took to starve.

Slowly, he moved it, twisting his whole arm just to keep the angle his hand was holding its brass brother's hand. When he wasn't stopped, he waited until it could turn no more and pushed the tall door open. It was heavy, like a safe door, but he managed to move it slowly. He hadn't realized he was holding his breath until the door had inched open, and he exhaled with great relief.

He was considering the thought now, but, where exactly did these doors even lead to?

Well, there was no other way out. It wouldn't matter where it took him at this point. He just wanted a way out of the hole he had fallen into.

Considering the weight of the door, despite its wood-like appearance, Alec only managed to open it just enough to slip through.

When he had pulled himself out of the tight squeeze, he looked at what the door had led to.

He was, quite honestly, blown away.

However could such a place exist? Much less behind a door under the ground?

The dark haired male was surrounded by a mostly vegetation of odd sorts. Types that he had never seen before, even in the books he'd read. The foliage was beyond bizarre, as if it had come out of some sort of fairy tale.

The door shut behind him loudly, and to his amazement, the door wasn't even connected to anything. It just stood there as the most foreign object outside, which was saying something, considering he was surrounded by flowers and trees that he had never seen before.

The trees were dark black with leaves that ranged from orange to silver in color. They were peppered around in the area he stood in. He was beginning to think it was some kind of field. The flowers on the ground stood from the height of a bird to a height above himself. In a way, the forest reminded him of the one he had just been running through.

Alec Lightwood was stunned just to see a sky above him, and grass below him. Because really, the sense that he was now under the sky while being underground? It was mind boggling for him.

The air was real, the wind was real. He stooped down to feel the grass he stood in. The grass and the dirt were real.

He was beginning to think he wasn't anywhere near home anymore.

The only thing missing was noisy life.

No birds, no animals or whatever might be here. While the idea of being in a foreign country had crossed his mind briefly, he still took into account that he had fallen umpteenth amount of yards underground. There had been doors in the pit, and only one had been open. The idea that he might be in another country would have been nice, but not true.

The entire area was dead silent, and Alec was starting to question other sources of life. He took a step further into the strange and exotic land he had stumbled upon-

-And was attacked from his left side by something heavy and growling.

He hit the ground, pinned under the tremendous weight of an animal. When he looked at his attacker, he was almost as curious as he was terrified.

He was looking at the face of Satan, he was sure of it. So hideous was the beast, with peeling, jerky-like skin and rows of dagger teeth, he wasn't sure what to make of it. The rest of the creature was bulky, with knobs from the spinal column sticking out of the back. He wasn't sure how it could have ribs and its spine sticking out of the rotting skin and still appear obese. He wasn't worried about its weight though. If anything, the teeth scared him more than the claws that cut into his skin and tore the dress.

The beast roared into the air, probably signaling its capture. It brought its head back down to roar in his face once more. Spittle flew into Alec's face, along with the hot breath that reeked of raw meat.

Alec's arms were pinned, and even if he could have pushed and struggled, it would have done little good against the large demon.

Like a dog sniffing food, the demon sniffed at him, growling low in its throat. Alec thought it was over before anything had really begun.

"Oy!" a clear shout sounded through the air. "Ass-face! Over here!" the faceless voice continued. The beast looked up, clearly insulted, roaring into a random direction of the sky.

Alec heard a rustling from the trees behind them; both he and the demon looked in the direction.

All he could see was a flash of gold, and the weight was lifted off of him.

The demon had been removed from his person in the blink of an eye. It hadn't completely disappeared though. Alec saw it coming out of a tumble a few feet away. Something had knocked it over.

Within another blink of his eyes, a young man had appeared before him. His hair shone golden in the light, the only thing to match the shine was the glinting sword he carried. His silver armor looked dull compared to the halo of hair the boy possessed.

"I hope this monster hasn't harmed you too much, ma'am," the male spoke, his back to Alec as he focused all of his attention on the animal that crawled on four legs towards them. "I'll take care of it shortly, and then tend to any wounds on you."

Before Alec could ask who he was, why he thought he could handle this beast, and point out the fact that he was not a ma'am, the golden haired male had sped off, swinging his sword at the face of the wretched creature.

The male managed to side swipe its eye, possibly taking out one of them. He didn't stop there though. He lashed out thrice more, a swipe to the left, right, and a jab.

While the slashes missed, the jab did make its mark. If the creature hadn't lost its eye before, it was gone now. The sword-wielder had lodged his sword hilt-deep within its eye.

It roared in agony, thrashing as the golden haired hero removed his sword and leapt back. He watched it writhe in pain before taking off for the woods.

The two males stared after it until the roars could no longer be heard. Alec was just amazed something like that existed.

The hero sheathed his sword, clapping his hands as if ridding himself of dirt.

"Agramon, I will get you some day," he muttered dramatically to himself, looking into the distance. Alec almost expected a good fist shaking after it.

Alec found his voice when he realized the strange male wasn't going to monologue about chasing Agramon around the world or whatever for revenge.

"Wh-what was that?" he asked, his voice cracking from fear.

As if the young warrior had been expecting that question, he spun on his heel, turning about-face. He wore a confident smirk; his dark golden eyes sparkled with pride. His jaw line was fine and angular, giving him an almost delicate face shape.

"What a good question, miss," he began, pure, sugary confidence oozed from his tone. "That was a demon. A fear demon, to be exact. One might call them hell-spawn, though this one is particularly dangerous. It changes shape instead of just having one particularly ugly gob."

Alec just blinked. He was in a world where monsters- no, demons, existed. Now he knew he wasn't on Earth anymore.

"Oh!" the hero started. "I nearly forgot. Are you hurt, young lady?" he crouched down to Alec's level, giving him sympathetic eyes. Alec flushed red under the other's close inspection. He hated to disappoint the brave hero, but he wasn't the gender he thought he was.

"I'm, uh, I'm okay," Alec said, keeping his voice level, wondering what exactly this golden boy would take of his deep voice.

"Hey? You got a sore throat or something? Your voice sounds terrible!" he commented. "You know what fixes that? Kissing. Hot, steamy, make-out sessions with people like myself fixes everything."

Alec choked on his own spit when he heard the male describe himself. Or the actions he wanted to do with him.

"I'm a guy!" he cried out, not wanting this conversation to continue.

The hero fell back in surprise; his face beat red as he realized his mistake.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry! I don't swing that way! You look like a chick!" The hero stuttered for an excuse. Anything to prove he wasn't hitting on Alec because he was a guy.

"It's okay. I should have said something sooner," Alec mumbled, feeling thoroughly embarrassed. "I'm not a cross-dresser," he said quickly, though the curious expression on the other's face thought otherwise.

"Okay, if you say so," the other nodded. "By the way, who are you?"

Not sure what he was supposed to answer with, Alec just gave his name.

"Alexander Lightwood. But call me Alec. Alexander sounds too formal," he rambled quickly, nervous.

The name made the stranger cock his head to the side.

"Lightwood? Are you sure?" he asked, sounding like he didn't believe what he was hearing.

"It's not a common last name, believe me, I've checked," Alec remarked.

"I'm Jace. Jace Wayland," the golden hero responded. "And I know. It really isn't a common last name." He seemed to be thinking of something, whatever it was made his brow furrow in deep concentration.

"I'm not from around here," Alec said to break the silence that they had lapsed in to. "Where am I?"

The question confused Jace even more than his last name did.

"This is the land of Idris, home of the Shadowhunters of the Silver Kingdom. How did you get here if you haven't even got an idea of what this place is?"

Alec had never heard of Shadowhunters, and monarchies had long died out, according to his history text books.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he admitted, looking back to where the door was supposed to be. He wasn't completely surprised that it had vanished. He would have expected Jace to know he had come through the door if he could see it.

Jace just nodded. "If you say so, foreigner." He picked himself up, brushing off his backside. "So, I was asking before, are you all right?" He offered Alec a hand, to which Alec gratefully took. He winced as he got up, his body aching ever more from the collision of Agramon.

"Sore," Alec informed, "but alive and in one piece. What were you doing out here?" he asked, not believing for a second that it was coincidence that he was saved by a handsome hero of golden hair.

His rescuer grinned deviously, looking proud again.

"I was hunting Agramon," he announced. "I'm a knight of the Silver Kingdom, and it is my duty to defend it from demons."

Demons, knights, castles. What time period were they even in?

"Oh, well, I'm sorry I got in your way," Alec apologized, looking sheepish.

"Oh, don't worry about it. You were jumped. That's not getting in my way." And though Jace wasn't saying it, they both knew he had jumped in because he thought Alec had been a damsel in distress.

"I don't know what to do now," Alec said quietly, still not knowing where he was. As far as he was concerned, Idris was not on the map.

Jace rubbed the back of his head, not knowing what to do with the foreigner either.

"I guess I could take you to the Silver Kingdom, if you want?" he offered, "I mean, anything's gotta be better than here, right?"

Alec nodded, not wanting to be alone in the strange world he had been cast in to.

"Please."

"Right this way, then," Jace said, leading the way in the direction of the woods.

It made Alec wary that they were going into the thicket of trees where more demons might lie in hiding, but Jace had a sword, he was a knight, so they weren't defenseless, at least.

The two made idle chatter, starting with the casual comment about the weather, moving on to the scenery and questions of what was what. They moved from that to what life was like in the land of Idris as they walked, and Jace happily answered everything.

"Our land is split into two sides," he told Alec. "We've been at war with the opposing side for, well, longer than I've been born, but we're at a standstill right now. Don't know when we're going to start charging each other down again."

Alec took all the information of the place that he could, wanting to know where he had been placed.

"What's the other side?" he asked, automatically considering the Silver Kingdom to be the good guys.

"They're the Kingdom of Thorns," he said. "Or as some of my squad calls them, the 'Horny Kingdom.'" Jace laughed at his own joke.

"Squad?" Alec inquired, thinking it was some sort of slang for something in the kingdoms.

"Oh yeah, I'm the Knight's Captain. Weird how my narcissism didn't add that in when I was introducing myself," he filled in, flashing one of his golden smiles.

"Narcissism isn't necessarily a good thing," Alec commented off handedly, secretly adoring the smile that Jace had.

"No, it's not," Jace replied, "but it's damn sexy on me."

They continued to travel in the directions Jace directed them in, it made Alec wonder how he navigated through these woods.

"How much farther is the Silver Kingdom?" he asked after they had traveled what felt like a long distance to him. His feet were killing him. The shoes that were too small were pinching the hell out of his toes.

Jace was about to answer him when a rumbling was heard farther off. He visibly perked up, halting their progress and listening harder.

It was a low growl, like the sound Agramon had made when he found prey. The sound made Jace unsheathe his sword excitedly.

"Ah! I see you couldn't resist the taste of battle, Agramon!" Jace shouted at the trees. "Well, look no further! I am your opponent!"

Before he ran off, he shouted over his shoulder.

"Just keep heading east!" he called, jogging. "You'll hit it when you hit it!" And with that, he ran off, leaving Alec alone and defenseless.

Alec stood there, wondering if the direction they had been traveling in was east, or if east was the direction he was supposed to go now. He moaned as he thought about all the ways he could die out here without a guide.

"Just head east," he muttered to himself, starting to walk in the direction he had been heading in.

He continued to travel in that direction too, hiding whenever he heard something that wasn't his own footsteps. He decided that he just wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, so he stopped hiding and started running.

He feared he was lost, as his journey through the unfamiliar woods was turning into a long one. He didn't even think he was heading in the original direction anymore.

Alec was lost, scared, and frustrated beyond belief. Here he was, stranded in this world he knew nothing about, with creatures that were more than happy to rip him limb from limb, and hot knights that were too wrapped up in fighting those creatures to even bother helping him out.

When the trees started to thin out, Alec became excited. He had been wandering for an unknown amount of hours. He was tired, and dirty from falling. He was sore and it hurt to breathe, plus his feet were killing him. He wondered if his ribs had been damaged when he was tackled.

The foreigner picked up the pace when he heard the faint sound of music, indicating a source of life somewhere nearby. He followed it, his hope rising for the first time since Jace bailed on him to look for a demon.

Through the trees he could see a brightly painted fence. Pink was what the color appeared to be. Pink probably didn't mean Silver Kingdom, but if he could find just one person to tell him, or better yet, show him where the Kingdom was, then anything was fine by him.

He never made it past the edge of the wood's edge. Something heavy fell on top of him once more.

Before he could panic and wonder if he had been tackled by another demon, his felt his consciousness fading. If he was going to die, at least he wouldn't be awake for it, he thought.

The last thing he heard before passing out was a soft mewl. A cat, maybe?

"Gotcha now, Sebas- Oh, shit. You aren't Sebastian."

_(XxX)_

_A/N: Copyright to Cassie Clare! I own nothing! I hope the next chapter comes out sooner, since all of our events seem to be cleared up. _


	3. The Mad Tea Party

A/N: I was reminded that I still had this fic by Oreoanime11 and that I hadn't updated in a year+. Okay, so I didn't forget. I sorta fell out of the MAlec fandom after jumping into the Hetalia fandom, but I'll finish this. I still have the notes to this, so I'll complete it. I like the idea I had, I just don't hold all of the interest I once had for the fandom.

His mother always said he was a big dreamer. His father didn't say much about it. Actually, his father didn't say much to him anyway. Magnus Bane chose to listen to his mother's hesitant words to him though, and even though she departed in such a fashion –he was over it now- he still followed those words.

After coming to terms with his mother's suicide and his father attempting to murder him, Magnus had decided what he really wanted in life was a large, comfortable house; preferably with two floors, a pink fence, yellow sheets for his bed and possibly for the curtains, and a bird.

Most of these things he had made to become reality. All except the bird. In its place he got a hamster-sized cat, which, now that he had the Chairman Meow, was perfectly fine. Much better than some puny, unfabulous bird, in fact. What he had now was a fabulous cat the length of his forearm. Plenty of pet for him, if he should say so himself.

Choosing a location for his new, glorious home had been simple once Magnus had removed himself from the Silver Kingdom. He was simply too much for the kingdom to handle. He nearly felt bad leaving them without his prescence before deciding his needs and wants were much more important than some existent or nonexistent feelings the people of the kingdom may hold for him.

Thus bringing him to his dream home that his big-dreamer-self thought of. The day he had it built, he took a step back and admired his creativity. He had to give himself a pat on the back because hot damn, it was sexy.

Magnus spent many days living comfortably in his new home with his new cat. He loved the peace and quiet, living away from the demanding kingdom that had asked him for so many favours courtesy of his magical talents. He accepted a few, but only the ones that were interesting or paid well. He was glad not to have that out here, especially since most of them had no idea where he had moved out to. If there was one thing he would have to come clean of, though, it would have to be that he missed connection with the big picture.

No, he didn't care what happened to the woman down the street, or the man who had murdered his wife and lover in his own home a ways over. Magnus could especially care less if the Queen –Gods look brightly upon her- was having a child, her heir.

Communication with the happenings of what was occurring in the Silver Kingdom though, was a curiosity. He hated being bothered or smothered with it, but having just enough where he could at least stay in touch with a few people to know the going-ons and the new ins and outs of fashion and what not would have been nice.

He told himself to suck it up or go to the kingdom and ask for the Queen herself to tell him what exactly had occurred in his absence.

As it turned out, the old Queen had passed, leaving her daughter as the heir. Magnus had been gone much longer than he had thought. Perhaps a calendar was in order, too.

Given time, Magnus explained who he was and what he did for the people of the Silver Kingdom while her mother reigned. Maryse was an exceptional listener, he found. She tolerated him at best, if he were honest. He was a strange, eccentric person who often times could be quite the handful. Magnus watched her grow up and marry Robert Lightwood. She became an exceptional queen, too. They kept in touch.

He would often extend an invitation to her and her king to his many, frivolous parties held in the garden beside his house. The garden appeared according to how he felt like setting it up. He would make it extra extravagant when they actually accepted his invitations, which was far and few between.

Today held no such party. Today was dull, drab, weary, and miserable.

Magnus had had a week full of chasing around the mischievous devil of the woods surrounding his home. With his new location he had never expected neighbours of any sort. Unfortunately, we do not pick and choose our neighbours, nor can we politely request that they move elsewhere.

The warlock of the Silver Kingdom found himself with an unmanageable issue of neighbor troubles. A wily, cunning bastard who insisted on ruining his garden and chasing his cat.

Sebastian Verlac, aka the 'Angel of Death,' or whatever he was running around calling himself these days. He had a strange method of giving himself new titles. They usually had something to do with something interesting he saw recently. He just so happened to be the indirect cause of death at the time, thus giving himself the temporary title. Magnus thought it was pretty stupid –and yes, the Great Warlock of the Silverette had a lot to say about stupid titles – even though people had taken to calling him the Mad Hatter, as of late.

He could admit that Mad Hatter did roll off the tongue quite nicely.

Over the past few days, Sebastian had taken to visiting his home. Not just visiting, but inviting himself in. Magnus had a feeling he was stealing things. He wasn't sure what, and it seemed to be things that weren't important enough for them to go missing, but when he noticed that his house occasionally looked emptier and a little less fabulous than normal, he concluded the other had taken to pickpocketing. Once he found out exactly what those things were, he'd poof them back in a second. This time they'd be super glued in place.

Magnus was playing music outside, hoping to draw in Sebastian and confront him about the possible thieving he'd been doing. He had waited and waited, sitting outside and finding small activities to do. Anything that ranged from painting his nails to taking care of his garden, in no particular order, mind, he waited.

Finally, after he was just about to give in with the sun setting, he heard rustling around in the forest.

Normally Sebastian was very quiet when he snuck around like the snake he was, but Magnus wouldn't miss this for the world. He stood quickly, leaping into the nearest tree he could manage. Some trees, despite his height, were very hard to reach the branches of.

He waited and waited more until he found a gentle, timid figure emerge from the mass of trees.

From where he sat above, he noted the tattered dress and stockings, the loose bow in the back, and the dark, messy hair of the new figure. He didn't stop to think. It must be Sebastian! No one else came out this way!

He leapt from his perch in the trees, swift and agile as a great cat. He landed heavily atop the figure below him, smirking triumphantly. He was pleased with the little to no struggling. "Gotcha now, Sebas- Oh, shit, you aren't Sebastian."

Perhaps a mistake had been made.

Magnus inspected the person closer. The dark hair had made him jump to conclusions! He thought Sebastian was trying something weird again! Magnus got off quickly, looking down at the young man in the dress.

So it wasn't Sebastian, but it was someone definitely trying some freaky shit. Magnus wasn't sure what to make of this. He just couldn't stop staring at this blatant male squeezed into a tight, simple dress.

He ran a hand through his hair, sighing wearily. All the wait for this? At least it was interesting, even if it wouldn't solve the thieving problem. He supposed he could invite the stranger inside. He supposed he owed him after tackling and knocking him unconscious.

Magnus grunted in affirmation before lifting the deadweight of the boy. He grunted in realization as he came to understand that while this male was not overweight, muscle weighed more than fat. Boy, was he toned.

He brought the stranger to his home, dumping him off onto the couch of his living room. No way was he getting his fancy canary sheets dirty.

While he wanted to go upstairs, claim a nice, steaming hot shower, then head for bed, Magnus was plenty curious enough to want to pull up a chair and study this fine specimen. That's exactly what he did, too. He snatched a chair from the other room and brought it close to the unconscious male on his sofa.

He was beautiful, even for a male. Magnus examined him from the top of his head to the tip of his shoe. Thick, silky black hair cut unevenly, delicate eyebrows as though they had been plucked fine. Long eyelashes that kissed his cheeks. His cheekbones were damn fine, too. A work of art, if he had any say in what was artsy-fartsy.

From there he moved down the young man's neck. Not slender, and not thick. The dress was very form fitting and gave him much to work with on mentally undressing the stranger. He would really much rather have a chance to examine the other with these clothes off. The first question he asked would have to be asking permission to remove the dress for him. If not, maybe he'd just question why the other was wearing a dress in the first place.

Magnus watched him until he grew bored. He stood and took care of his nightly routine before crashing in his own bed upstairs. He almost worried for the other, in the event he woke up and felt fear form the strange place. He might even think he'd been kidnapped if he managed to remember being landed on and knocked out.

The next morning came, Magnus slowly rising out of bed with the afternoon sun. He listened and waited for any sounds coming from the downstairs area, puzzled when he heard none at all. Perhaps the other had left in the early morning? Magnus showered, dressed, and applied his make up before heading down to check. Just a simple white collared shirt, a dark vest, casual slacks, and his magnificent top hat. The top hat was very important to his character, if he did say so himself. It had given him the nickname, after all, since the name he had made was apparently too long and not catchy.

As it turned out, the kid was still sleeping on the sofa, barely shifted from how he had been placed last night. Magnus tilted his head and wondered what exactly he would do now with the stranger he had taken into his home. He sure slept like the dead. The idea that he could be dead occurred to him but was swiftly banished when he observed the slow rising and falling of the other's torso.

Magnus had things to be done and people to entertain today though. He had decided before falling asleep that night that he would throw a party today instead of keeping watch for Sebastian. Preparations were simple as he already had a long table capable of seating at least twenty five comfortably, set out near his garden. All it needed was the table cloth which he kept stored near the door, and food, which he could simply 'borrow' from the Kingdom's castle's kitchen. They would never notice if he magicked it over right about now.

He set to work fixing the table up, draping the cloth over with his magic abilities. It simply took too long and too much effort to do that part himself. Next, he called up his guests; it would be a small, simple party because he neither wanted to wake the strange boy that was also invited, and because it was too much of a hassle to take enough food for twenty.

The food came next, and Magnus knew just what he wanted. He summoned much of the castle's fruits, tea, and his favourite, coffee. He snagged a few other food types too, but nothing was more important than the first selected foods to him and some of the guests invited.

Silverware and glasses were also part of his collection for the parties he often threw. He had the kind that was perfect to toss and crumple at any given point. He also had the kind that he really liked to save for special occasions. The middle ground of those two drinking glasses was his tea set.

He had a few of them, actually. Different types, different sizes, all for different occasions. He had sets of porcelain, clay, glass, plastic, and even an old wooden set that he almost never used. Today would be plastic though, just because of the company he'd be inviting.

Magnus set the tea on, then the coffee pot. He liked having choices and not forced to stick to one. About the time the beverages were finished, Magnus had carried them out to the table, placing them in the middle. Guests were beginning to arrive, and Magnus was just finishing. Only one last thing to add to the table set, he decided.

The warlock excused himself from the few people who had so far made it to his small, quiet party and made to go inside. As he walked in, his cat walked out, presumably to enjoy the food for himself.

Magnus made for the sofa of which his sleeping guest lay peacefully. Magnus smiled to himself for a moment before scooping up the cross-dresser bridal style. The idea of how appropriate the image must be crossed his mind quickly as he carried the young man outside. A few of the guests made a comment on the stranger; a few questions were thrown at Magnus.

He shushed them swiftly, feeling the young man stir slightly in his arms. He didn't wake, but he seemed pretty close to do so soon.

It had been a pretty good idea, he had thought. Let the other return to the waking world at a party, why not? Magnus had placed the dark haired male in a chair, sitting him upright as best as he could, only to watch as the limp body slumped forward.

A few of the people around the table snickered, Magnus included. That aside, he took his own seat, announcing the start of his tiny party.

They were mostly quiet, sharing a few laughs, a few comments. Some still threw questions his way, asking who the hell was sleeping at the table, all of which Magnus cast aside, waiting for the right moment to explain. The right moment being, when the stranger was awake and demanding to know what happened. Magnus didn't want to say it twice.

Thankfully, about ten, fifteen minutes in to their party, the slumped body began to rouse. A low groan silenced the table's guests and they watched as he lifted his head, eyes blinking open wearily.

"Wh-where am I?" he asked, his voice raspy and thick. Magnus was wondering whether he should be falling head over heels in love with the voice, or if he should be overly concerned about how this voice went with this man, who happened to be in a very girly dress.

Considering this was the first time he was getting to see the stranger with his eyes open, Magnus couldn't help but want a closer look at his bright blue eyes. They were something else, he could tell.

The boy looked around the table, eyes widening as he realized he was surrounded by a bunch of people he hadn't the faintest idea of their identity.

"Who are you people? What's going on?"

That was his queue, although his queue could have easily been the first question easily.

"You, my dear cross dressing stranger," he began regally, very mystical, as if he knew all of these answers and more. "You're currently seated at my tea party! I found you the other day unconscious in the forest, just at the opening to my place!" He failed to bring up the fact that the unconsciousness had been induced from his mistake. "You've been out cold since then. I decided the best wakeup call would be a party in celebration of your waking up." Even though it hadn't been totally planned that way, it sounded cooler, and the guests couldn't object because they didn't know either.

The young man blinked owlishly, lost in a state of confusion. His brow furrowed and he cast his gaze around the table.

"This isn't the Silver Kingdom, is it?" he asked dubiously, his hesitation telling him he already knew the answer.

" 'Fraid not, love." He winked when their gazes met, causing the other to grow red and avert his eyes.

"And who are you?"

This was the question that he had to play out the right way. The others could easily deny any trait he threw out if he exaggerated or lied. He had to make it sound good though.

"I," he paused for dramatic effect. "Am Magnus: ex-magical warlock of the Silver Kingdom, powerful in many ways, oh yes. I have abilities you'd never dream of; could never imagine unless I showed you –Shut the hell up, Simon, just don't say it.

"Where was I? Oh, right. I'm the thrower of many parties, owner of one Chairman Meow, and many sets of clothing. They call me the Mad Hatter," he concluded, smirking devilishly.

While his guests looked at him with a bit of skepticism and amusement, the stranger looked at him as though he wasn't sure what to make of his long introduction.

"Okay. I think I got all that, even though I'm not sure I understood that all," he answered honestly. "I'm Alec. Alexander, actually, but call me Alec," he muttered awkwardly.

Magnus grinned widely; thoroughly tickled pink that he'd gotten a name out of his damsel in distress.

"Great."

Alec looked around the table at the others, counting three ordinary looking people excluding Magnus, two young men with long, pointy ears, and a cat sitting on top the table and nibbling at the contents of the fruit bowl.

"Who are they?"

The very important warlock who really wanted Alec's attention to focus on him pursed his lips in annoyance. He snapped his fingers in a very petulant manner.

"Peasants, introduce yourself."

For a moment they all looked a bit confused, then a bit offended. The first one to speak was a young girl with bright red hair. A small thing with a very confident posture.

"My name's Clary, Clary Fray. I like to draw, I'm friends with Simon, and I live in the Silver Kingdom. Also, I'm not a peasant." She looked slightly offended that she had been called a peasant.

Next, the boy next to her introduced himself.

"Hey man, how's it going?" He lifted a hand in casual greeting. Alec returned a cocked head and a confused stare. Awkwardly, and very delayed, he lifted his hand to match the other's held in the air.

"Right. You're clearly a social butterfly," the brown haired boy commented, lowering his hand. "I'm Simon Lewis. No, I'm not going to do the same introduction of first name, then first name and last name. It's getting old now that you and Clary have done it. Also, I'm not a peasant either. I live in the Silver Kingdom and-"

"You're boring, and you're not as funny as you wish you were. Stop trying to be me. Next!" Magnus cut in, ignoring the heated glare he earned from the glasses boy. "Please, hun. I'll freeze your face like that if you keep making it at me."

The youngest of the ordinary people introduced himself timidly, hiding behind large framed glasses. If Alec thought about it, he looked a little like he did when he was younger.

"M-my name's Max Lightwood," he stated, keeping his eyes averted. "I… I like comic books, and I'm older than I look, I promise." Alec couldn't help but jump a little at the last name similarity. It really, honestly wasn't a common last name, and in all of his life, he had never met anyone outside family who had the last name. Now someone from another world shared it? Too crazy.

A trio of very simple, very ordinary people. Alec liked ordinary very much. The last two people were not quite so ordinary, unfortunately.

The first elf, which Alec had to assume they were. Both looked severely disinterested, though this one more so. His long silver hair hung neatly down his back, from what Alec could tell from where he was sitting.

"I am Meliorn. Just, Meliorn. You do not need to worry about me just yet." He turned to Magnus. "You, on the other hand. I only came because I was told to."

Magnus shrugged and gave his simple smirk.

"That's what she said, gorgeous."

"Ohh, snap!"

"Simon, shut up!"

Meliorn was unfazed by the comment.

The final elf next to Meliorn just shrugged when the attention returned to him.

"What he said," was his answer, not bothering to introduce himself.

The party host looked around the table and made sure that was everyone. He nodded to himself and took a swig of coffee.

"Yeah, any more questions?" he asked, looking at the nervous dark haired beauty.

The young man bit his lower lip, looking at Magnus from under the dark, long lashes he had admired the night before. Magnus returned his gaze curiously, wondering what could cause such an expression. Normally people did that when they were seducing him. This look was caused from uncertainty and maybe a touch of timidness.

Alec hesitated before giving him a shaky no. This only made Magnus want to know much more about him.

"Tell me about yourself, yeah?" he asked, grabbing his cat from the fruit bowl and placing a struggling Chairman Meow on his lap.

This of course, made Alec look very nervous, as though he wasn't sure what he could say. Magnus wondered what secrets he would be keeping and what lies he would be telling.

"Well, I was looking for the Silver Kingdom yesterday, and I got lost." He paused, remembering that this was an unusual thing to tell people. "I'm not from around here, you know?"

"Oh, do tell. I have all the time in the world."

"Well, I… How do I explain?"

"You could start with the beginning? That's how people usually explain things."

Alec shot Magnus a look and thanked him sarcastically. Magnus chose to ignore the heavily laced sarcasm and dropped Alec a flirtatious wink.

"Anything for you, foreign babe."

Alec coughed and cleared his throat, not quite sure how he felt about being called a "foreign babe." He was pretty sure he didn't like it, but he didn't like a lot of things that made him flush red. Or so he told himself.

"I'm not from here, okay? I've never been to, what is this place? I-Idris Land or something, right?" Alec asked rhetorically.

"Actually, we usually just refer to it as the land of Idris," Simon piped up. He was shushed by Clary who gazed at Alec as though he had promised the mother of all bedtime stories and was being denied because people kept interrupting.

"Yeah, that place. Well, where ever the hell that place is supposed to be on the map of the world, I've never seen it!" Alec retorted, as though it were the map's fault he had no idea where he was. To be fair though, geography had never been very big to him. He admittedly slept through quite a few lectures on the world's history and locations.

"I don't really care what this place is called if I've never seen it in my textbooks, or if I haven't got a single idea how to get out!"

Magnus picked at his teeth idly, listening to the foreigner's confused complaints. He decided that this could get annoying if he didn't nip the problem in the bud. Complaining was what he did. It was annoying when anyone else got to do it. This was why Simon wasn't allowed anywhere near him without Clary, otherwise all he did was complain. With Clary around, he complained inwardly and let it build up so he could complain to Magnus later. At least, that's how the warlock felt about what the glasses kid did about his issues.

"Hey, here's a thought! How about you tell me what the hell you were doing wandering around in the forest, alone, in a dress, only to wake up with no clue as to what this place is. Once you give us the lowdown on the down-low, maybe I can help you out of here. Or at least to the Silver Kingdom," he amended quickly. Wouldn't want the kid relying on him, after all.

The dark haired male seemed to realize that the warlock understood and apparently accepted he wasn't from their world at this point. At least one of them understood it. Maybe the man who had helped him the first time could do it once more. Alec owed him quite a lot already.

"I'll tell you then, but you'll bring me to the Silver Kingdom if I do, right?"

"Sure. If that's what you want."

The foreigner took a deep breath and prepared himself for disbelief.

"Well, I'm not from here, like I said. I'm from, well, we call it Earth, but more specifically I live New York, which is in the United States. Enough of that though, that probably means nothing to you guys.

"I was living with my sister for the summer; trouble with the 'rents. That's a long story too, and because it's entirely irrelevant to my situation, I'm not telling it."

One of the elves snickered dryly.

"Human relationships," he said, rolling his eyes. "There's a reason the elves don't get attached. It's too much trouble to take care of someone other than ourselves."

"You guys have no idea what you're missing," Simon said. "But then again, looking like that, I'm sure it's easy to get anyone any time, right?"

Simon was ignored once more, and not for the last time.

"Anyways," Alec coughed, trying to draw attention back to him. The sooner he finished the sooner the warlock would help him, right? "It was my birthday the other day and my sister wanted to, uh, play dress up. As in, only I get dressed up."

"So why did you agree to it? Don't tell me it's normal in your world to dress like that?"

"No! Of course not. I did it because… Actually, I can't remember. I think I was guilt tripped!"

Alec tried to recall but was unable. Regardless, it was irrelevant to the moment. He was in a dress, which was all that mattered.

"She went to get scissors to cut my hair, and I tried bailing outside. I brought my cat with me at the time, and he ran off. He doesn't usually do that…

"I ran into the forest after the cat, y'know? We really didn't want him getting lost or getting eaten by something. He ran down some kind of… rabbit hole? A molehill? I don't know. He ran down there, I thought he would get stuck, so I got down to reach for him, and something –that's right!- something grabbed my arm and pulled me under!"

All the while, the dark haired warlock listened with interest, despite his outward appearance of disinterest. The story had sounded silly at first, but then it started to touch down on familiar. The very ending of it, of being dragged down from another world and brought to theirs. Not many people knew that story anymore, and Magnus had barely recalled it. One had to be as old as Magnus, or interested in old stories to know about it.

"I dropped into a room with these doors. Most of them were locked except the one that brought me outside to this place. I was attacked, that's right! By, what was the name? Agro… Agramon?"

The members around the table stiffened at the name. Apparently it was known well around every part of Idris.

"What happened next?" Clary asked, wide eyes doe-like and curious.

"I was saved by a knight from the Silver Kingdom. I can't remember his name though." His brow furrowed, trying to remember everything that happened. He recalled the rush of being attacked being frightening. He didn't remember the face of the beast that had jumped him, but he did remember being saved by a knight with golden hair.

"Describe him," Max suggested, curiosity only rivaled by Clary's. "We probably know who it is."

"He was average height? Blonde? A bit of an asshole?" This was apparently all he needed to say, as a look of recognition appeared on all of their faces. The elves held one closer to a look of distaste; the others had one of familiarity, each remembering a different event with this knight.

"Ah. That's Jace Wayland," Magnus murmured thoughtfully. "He's a real character, I'll tell you that." He rolled his eyes and scoffed as he recalled a time where Jace had barged into his house demanding he stop stealing from the kitchens of the castle, mainly because Magnus was purposely stealing the things Jace specifically liked.

"Jace is such a punk," Simon muttered. "He's a total douchenozzle." There were far too many memories the young man could use as examples as to why Jace was, exactly, a 'total douchenozzle.'

"He's only a jerk to you guys," Clary commented, smiling to herself. Her memories were much better compared to the other's. She actually liked the guy, which was more than anyone else could ever say about him.

"Okay?" Alec's opinion had been different considering he had been mistaken for a girl and hit on by said knight. Plus, he had been ditched for the sake of chasing some demon. He couldn't help but wonder if the majority's opinion was the right opinion.

"He ran off when he was trying to show me how to get to the Silver Kingdom." Alec talked over the comments of, "yeah, he does that," and "typical." He couldn't help but find it a bit funny, even though he had taken the man to be very attractive and charismatic. Someone he could like. Not only did he not know him well enough yet, but he was getting mixed reviews. One couldn't help but reconsider.

"And that's how you made your way to my place?" Magnus inquired, observing his filed nails with minor interest. Of course the entire story had been interesting. It was bringing back more memories about the old story he had heard. A few details of Alec's had been off, or left out, but so far it matched up. A coincidence?

"Yeah. Thanks for that, by the way."

"Don't worry about it. You've amused me, so perhaps I'll consider bringing you over to the Kingdom."

Alec's jaw dropped in disbelief.

"C-consider?" There was a chance he wouldn't be helped?

"Magnus! Don't be mean!" Clary scolded, not that it did anything to Magnus' final decision, which, had already been made up. He would certainly bring Alec where he needed to be. He wanted to see what happened next.

"You know what? Maybe I'll just-" The warlock was rudely interrupted as the baying of horns went off in the distance. The table froze and turned to look in the direction of where they sounded off.

The first people to break the stillness were the elves. They stood and vanished quicker than a blink of an eye into the forest. Alec stared after them in amazement. He was in track, and no one had ever moved that fast in track.

"What is that?" Alec asked quietly, observing the wide eyed gazes of those around the table. Clary clutched Max tightly, Simon sat left out. He had moved closer to Clary though, as though he meant to defend her no matter what he was or was not capable of.

Magnus snapped his attention back to the table. He stood quickly and walked to where Alec sat, pulling him up by the arm and practically dragging him out of his chair. The horns sounded louder, closer this time.

"No time to waste, no time to waste!" he snapped, his sharp nails digging into Alec's arm. He pulled Alec along this way and that, indecisive as to where to put him. Magnus muttered quickly to himself, eyes darting everywhere around his property. Alec only caught a few bits of the streams of words.

"Could hide you in the house, but that's the first place they'll look. Gotta hurry, gotta hurry…" He pulled the confused foreigner to the side of the table. "Will they look in the forest? In the tree tops? Can he climb fast enough? What about under the table?"

As the horn sounded close enough for the people the group was so blatantly afraid of to be just in the mouth of the trees, Magnus pulled Alec down quickly, nearly pulling his arm from his socket. Alec found himself shoved under the table.

"Stay quiet! Don't… don't do anything! Don't move, don't peek! Don't even breathe!"

Alec crawled quickly to the middle of the table, looking at the pairs of legs from under the long table cloth. He saw Magnus' legs appear back to the end of the table. Alec heard voices approaching, and many sets of footsteps.

"Mad Hatter! What a… pleasant surprise," a deep voice drawled lazily. "You lot look as out of place, as per usual."

A barely nervous laugh resounded from Magnus. He was a damn good actor, Alec could see. To hell if Magnus was going to put his old acting lessons and natural drama to waste when this was the perfect opportunity for him.

"The pleasure is all yours, I assure you."

"If you could call it that." A low growl came from the first voice.

"I'm not the one who called it a pleasant surprise," the other retorted sardonically.

"Let's not play games, okay? You're a mad man, and I don't enjoy taking time out of my day to spend it with a mad man and his… friends."

"I can't imagine what else you'd do with your time if you weren't hounding out the Thorn Kingdom's enemies for them."

"I could have you and your lot arrested for harassing and provoking attack!" the man snapped irritably. Magnus' plan was to send him off frustrated, forgetting his original intent for their visit.

In the distance, Alec could hear the muffled noise of a bird shrieking. His skin crawled as he realized it was the sound of a raven. Magnus' foot started twitching nervously.

"Better control your bird," Magnus commented smoothly. "Better not eat my cat or my food."

"Please, warlock," Alec could practically see a sneer in that sentence. "Huginn would die from indigestion if he ate your cat or your food. That's not why he's here, though, no. If you recall, my pet is far better than any dog. He'll find what we want if you won't hand it over."

He couldn't help but notice the rippling of the tablecloth stopped when Magnus' body froze in realization. Would he turn him in? Alec would be found no matter what, according to the stranger.

"What are you talking about? There's nothing to find," Magnus said, his voice quivering in the slightest. That was not lost on whomever he was talking to, as a dark chuckle was heard, and the command for the bird to start searching was issued.

Alec froze up, holding his breath and biting harshly at his lip. It was a matter of minutes before the raven somehow showed them where he was hidden.

"What's that? Under the table?" the deep voice questioned no one in particular. Alec's breath hitched. He felt his blood run cold as it drained from his face. Would he make it if he ran?

A/N: This is not only unbeta-ed, but I honestly just didn't bother doing a check over. I'm sorry. All mistakes are mine, and I'm really done with this chapter. It's nice and long; a reward for those who hung in there for this. I'll try to keep it up this time, but I promise nothing. My final year of high school is really busy!


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